Sunday, December 13, 2009

Budapest in one day

So now it is back to my Eastern Europe travel after that break in Turkey.

In my last post, I was spending the first night in Vienna. The breakfast at Hotel Bork the next morning was very good and definitely provided a very bright start to our journey. We tucked in what we could before we went on our tour in the coach which took us to Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Along the way we saw a number of wind turbines such as the ones below.

Our first stop was at the Citadel Hill where we had a panoramic view of Budapest.

The Danube River divides the city into two, on the left is Buda

and on the right is Pest.

Since this is one of the tourist spots, there are plenty of stalls selling touristic items including laces and Hungarian dolls.

After this overview of Budapest, we went on a river cruise on the Danube. The is a tinge of blue in the river in the photo below but only just.

There were many views of the buildings along the banks of the river.

After lunch, we went to the Hero's Square.

From here we went to the St.Stephen Basilica, the city's largest church.

Then it was shopping nearby when the main item of attraction was Hungarian lace.

We then crossed the Danube to Buda, the other side of the city and it was a visit to another hill, this time it was at the Fishermen's Bastion on the Buda side of the city. From here you have a good view of Pest.

The Matthias Church with its colourful roof is situated nearby.

After this, we had some free time for shopping in the downtown city area before we went for our dinner. Of course it was Hungarian Goulash, complete with gypsy music.

At last we checked into our hotel (Hotel Europa) which was a bit out of town and we all had a really good night's rest after a very hectic first day where we did Budapest in one day! Whew.